Slang in the Oz

And why is it that I've got a chip on my shoulder just because I take the time to correct some assumptions that are wildly inaccurate?

SimonTuesday, March 30, 2004, 09:01 GMT

But do you have rhyming slang? If so, what is it like? I've tried to find other cultures and languages that have rhyming slang and outside London and (allegedly) Australia I can't find any.

JordiTuesday, March 30, 2004, 13:50 GMT

I would say rhyming slang is dying out both in London and Australia and this may well be the reason why younger generations have the feeling it doesn't exist or, at the utmost, that it is a thing of the past. I'm sure older Londoners and Australians would answer in a different way. Lots of studies in the Internet.

Po'd OzTuesday, March 30, 2004, 22:23 GMT

Ok,

No-one in my generation (I'm in my mid 30's) uses or has even heard of rhyming slang in Oz. Unless they had an ancient relative that used it. Britain\Ireland hasn't been our major source of migrants for decades. Most of our migrant population come from non-english speaking backgrounds so that type of slang has died a death I think.

Oz has a high migrant population, in fact most of our population growth comes from immigration rather than local births so it does have a big effect on our language and culture.

I was really suprised when a Japanese friend of mine showed me a magazine article in a local J magazine describing how to make a typical Oz meal. The recipe was for spaghetti bolognese!! While I have to admit that it's a popular dish for most Oz's it just goes to show that what's typically Oz is changing all the time.

Give it another 5 years and I wouldn't be surprised to see a recipe for Pad Thai or something similar billed as typically Oz food. The days of banga's and mash are on their way out.

Hope this helps.

JordiTuesday, March 30, 2004, 23:01 GMT

I'm from your same generation and I grew up in Australia although I've now been living in Europe for many years. I'd never heard about Australian rhyming slang till now but it would seem that it does have its followers in Australia. Not everybody is expected to know all the aspects of his culture. I live in Spain and I've never been to a bullfight of flamenco show in all these years. It's just not too popular right where I live and nobody doubts that it does go on in this country. There's much more in the Internet but it would seem Rhyming Slang has been quite popular in some Australian circles since the mid 1900s; meaning it's still going on somewhere downunder. And, regardless of recent migrants to Australia it would seem British culture (Australian English culture if you prefer) does still have a strong influence in Oz. After all, the Queen of England is still Australia's Head of State.
cockney rhyming slang
... Most English speaking countries now employ their own rhyming slang expressions,
Australia has been a particularly strong user since the mid 1900's. ...
www.peevish.co.uk/slang/articles/ cockney-rhyming-slang.htm - 15k - Còpia en memòria - Pàgines similars

Australian Rhyming Slang
... What's rhyming slang? They say Australian rhyming slang comes from cockney and
was brought to Australia by the convicts who first settled the country. ...
goaustralia.about.com/cs/language/a/rhymingslang_p.htm - 24k - Còpia en memòria - Pàgines similars

SimonWednesday, March 31, 2004, 08:25 GMT

It's not so different in London. I went to a football match and I got there very early so I had my dinner in a local café. The woman behind the counter was Asian and two girls on a table near me were speaking in French. It was only much closer to the match time that a couple of "stereotypically London" guys (i.e. cockney accents etc.) came in. I eavesdropped their conversation and they had come in from out of town...

I think this is probably similar to what you are saying about Australia.

JordiWednesday, March 31, 2004, 10:50 GMT

According to official Australian reports read on the Internet 90% of the population was of British origin in Australia until WW2. Since then, the figure is down to 70% for people of Anglo-Celtic (GB and Ireland) origin. 4% would have some kind of Aboriginal background and 27% the rest. Obviously, amongst the rest there is a great number of Europeans (Western, Eastern and Southern) and Asians as well. If you lived in a place like Cabramatta in Sydney's western suburbs you might well have the feeling that everybody in Australia was Asian. Wouldn't you if you lived in Chinatown in the US? So the facts are still the facts and Australian society is basically a British venture, which has happily evolved of course. Otherwise, it would be quite difficult to understand the especial feelings so many Australians still hold for the poms whom they scorn and love while they have afternoon tea in the middle of nowhere. I would say Great Britain is still the most Australian country outside Australia in the world; almost the 7th state. There is New Zealand, of course.

You're certainly not the only Aussie around the place. Especially for Americans: "If you bag something that a lot of people want, you get it for yourself before anyone else can get it; used in informal British English. EG. Can you bag the fronts seats for us.
I would add "widely used in informal Australian English." EG. Please don't bag my country friggin' poms!!!
As far as "frigging" or its near synonym "bloody" they are both wisely used in informal British or Australian English, more so the lower you get.
Just to prove my point and, by the way, I learnt all those bloody lessons mate somewhere in New South Wales where I grew up.
And please read my message again when I say "happily evolved".

connieTuesday, April 06, 2004, 04:56 GMT

yes us aussies do call dinner, tea. i dunno why, but we do. i didn't know what a tuber was until i saw pumpkin and all the other veges in the same sentence. i agree with the other fellow aussie, that cockney slang has no resemblance to our language. we don't appropriate other languages. its our own. i have never ever heard any aussie say anything like that. you'd sound like a complete bogan. oh and i'm more familiar with 'oz' than 'the oz'. but i don't live where you live so i dunno. i mean wouldn't it be just a shortening of australia, i mean you don't say i'm going on holiday to the australia. do you?

connieTuesday, April 06, 2004, 04:58 GMT

i hope bangers and mash isn't on the way out. boo hoo.

TexSaturday, April 10, 2004, 07:21 GMT

I don't want to offend anyone, I'm honestly curious about this...

As I understand it, a Poofter is a male homosexual (and I agree that "wanker" has nothing to do with it as a wanker could be a male of either persuasion, but I digress...)